Although the arrival of Mata from Chelsea and the return of Rooney and Van Persie from injury briefly raised spirits at Old Trafford, United still have injury problems, with Rio Ferdinand and Nani among players still sidelined.

They also lost defenders Phil Jones and Jonny Evans during the Stoke match, with the former suffering concussion and the latter a calf problem.

Smalling added: "We don't really talk (about the Champions League) but we all know if anything that's the minimum we need to aim for.

"If we can get on a good run, we've got the players - obviously we lost a couple on Saturday, but we've got a week now until we next play so hopefully we can patch them up and get as many bodies out there as we can."